The Phoenix Logging Company was incorporated by Sol Simpson and Alfred Anderong in November of 1899. The company was formed to work in the timber lying north of the Skokomish River in Mason County, with headquarters in Seattle and logging operations based out of Potlatch. Touted as the second largest logging operation in the state, the company got off to a slow start. Logging was begun with horses on the skid roads; then the logs were trailed on the railroad tracks behind the locomotives. By the 1920s, logs were being hauled over some 20 miles of main line with 5 locomotives. There were two full side camps and a pole camp, which still used horses. The company continued to operate after 1939; however, the railroad was closed out and logging operations continued with motor trucks.

Potlatch is a community on the west side of Hood Canal at its Great Bend in central Mason County. A potlatch house which stood there was reportedly three hundred feet long and one hundred fifty feet wide. Many famous potlatches were held there. In 1841, the Wilkes Expedition called the place Neclim Point, using the Indian name. The name seems not to have been used on any subsequent maps in its correct spelling. Altered to Neelim Point, it is now applied to a headland immediately south of Potlatch.